King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 169
[Today's June [-]st, you are all people who refuse to accept the old, you must add more! 】

After being instructed by the emperor, Zhu Jinghong lived in peace for another two days.

He originally planned to play around for two days, pretending to show the emperor, and then went to Xiyuan to play polo and test firearms.

Through these methods, it is a win-win for him to keep up with the generals who are directly in charge of the military guards.

That's right, it means he won twice.

It's a pity that a decree to open the sutra feast made Zhu Jinghong feel desperate again, because he was going to attend the sutra feast.

In the past few years, every time it came to the opening feast, it was when Zhu Jinghong was suffering. He performed extremely poorly and was punished every time.

"No...you can't just sit and wait!"

"I have to think of a way to get away with it!"

After much deliberation, Zhu Jinghong finally had an idea, and that was the polo he had been thinking about.

For sports like polo, riding skills and physical strength are extremely critical in order to get a good ranking in the national competition, but Zhu Jinghong has both.

It seems like a good excuse to let myself practice polo and specifically deal with the challenges of various countries. At worst, I will make a military order that I must win the first place.

Putting down the books, Zhu Jinghong rushed outside and shouted, "Come here, change clothes... I want to face the saint!"

Zhu Jinghong was about to face the saint, and the little eunuch in the hall immediately went to get his clothes, and changed Zhu Jinghong's robes after a while.

Standing in front of the mirror, seeing the nobility exuding from his whole body, Zhu Jinghong smiled crookedly.

"go!"

Ten minutes later, Zhu Jinghong entered the Qianqing Palace, but he could only stay outside the Nuan Pavilion, because there was a discussion inside.

And if it is a minister, this situation can only wait outside the hall, and those officials below the third rank can only wait outside the Qianqing Gate.

Being close has the advantage of being close. For example, Zhu Jinghong can hear the conversation in the Nuan Pavilion at this moment.

"Nowadays, the northwest is not stable. Although the envoys of various countries are here to celebrate the birthday, they still have the heart to find out the truth of our great Ming!"

"With this birthday festival, we have to frighten them well. Do you have a good plan for this...you?"

The voice belonged to the emperor, and the tone was more serious, which was obviously very important to him.

In fact, in every cabinet meeting, what is discussed is very important.

After a few breaths of silence in the Nuan Pavilion, someone said: "Your Majesty, if you want to shock people's hearts, let them know that my Ming Dynasty has a strong military force!"

"I thought I could let them watch the arsenal, the factory buildings of the Ministry of Industry and the Bingzhan Bureau!"

Zhu Xianming also thought of this, at this moment he stroked his beard and nodded slightly.

After Xie Chang'en finished speaking, the grand scholar Chen Jinyun continued: "Your Majesty...weapons are dead things after all. The strength of our Great Ming lies not only in our military equipment!"

"Our etiquette system, our food and supplies are all the best in the world, let them see these too!"

In the eastern world, the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty was all-round, and what Chen Jinyun said really came to the bottom.

Seeing that Zhao Yushan was silent, Zhu Xianming took the initiative to ask, "Zhao Qing...what do you think?"

Zhao Yushan has outstanding long-term vision and ability, Zhu Xianming thinks highly of him, and even wants him to bypass Chen Jinyun to take over as chief assistant.

"Your Majesty, what the two elders said makes sense, but they forgot one thing!"

"What's the matter?"

"Although my Ming Dynasty is rich, the money and food that can be levied are distributed in various official warehouses. We can't let the Ministry of Rites take envoys to visit various places?"

In addition to silver, the imperial court collected taxes in kind, mainly grain and silk cloth.

Things like grain and silk cloth are very troublesome to transfer, and the loss is relatively large on the way, so they are basically transferred directly.

Except for a part of the money and food in the wealthy provinces in the south, which are directly transferred to the imperial treasury, most of them are directly allocated to the important towns on the nine borders, and are managed by officials sent out from the Ministry of Households.

This also means that the Ministry of Households' official warehouses near the capital will not store too much grain and supplies even if official ships come to Beijing to deliver grain every day.

After all, the millions of people in the capital city consume a lot of food, drink and scatter, and the grain reserves in the official warehouses of the capital city are more for emergencies.

"Furthermore, as far as I know, the warehouses of the Ministry of Industry and the War Bureau have only replenished ordnance to Nine Sides a month ago, and I'm afraid there is not much stock in the warehouse!"

In fact, there is another point that Zhao Yushan did not say, mainly because it is not very good to say it on this occasion.

It is also unknown whether the food and ordnance rooms on the account match the actual numbers in the warehouse.

If because of the visit, the officials at the bottom demolished the east wall to make up for the west wall, and caused troubles during the Shengshou Festival, it would discredit the court instead.

Zhao Yushan's words were tantamount to refuting the two cabinet ministers who had just spoken.

Chief Assistant Xie Changen didn't think it mattered, anyway, he was going to resign after this year, and he was really not interested in cabinet battles.

"Then what should be done according to Zhao Ge's opinion?" Chen Jinyun asked in a cold voice.

Zhu Xianming also looked at Zhao Yushan, hoping that he could come up with a more insightful solution.

"Your Majesty, whether it's weapons or food, they are just dead things..."

Zhao Yushan leaned back and said, "I think...it's better to let the Beijing camp perform martial arts and let the envoys from all over the world observe it. Our Ming army is majestic and upright, and it will surely deter Xiaoxiao!"

But Chen Jinyun retorted: "Practice martial arts? If you don't mobilize tens of thousands of people, I'm afraid there won't be much momentum. How can you talk about deterring Xiaoxiao?"

"But if tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are dispatched, under the mighty soldiers...wouldn't they be afraid of colliding with the Supreme Emperor?"

"Right now is the Supreme Emperor's birthday festival, not the hunting at Shanglin Garden in early spring!"

Undoubtedly, what Chen Jinyun said made sense, but Zhao Yushan would not agree, and the two argued again.

As for Zhu Jinghong, who was listening quietly at the door, his mind was not idle, and he was thinking about countermeasures from beginning to end.

When the three cabinet ministers debated endlessly and were about to discuss a "face project", Zhu Jinghong finally couldn't help it.

So he walked straight towards the Nuan Pavilion along the aisle, and the little eunuch on duty couldn't stop him.

"Master Thirteen, you must not..."

"Master Thirteen, please stop..."

Zhu Jinghong ignored these people, he had already appeared outside the gate of the Nuan Pavilion, meeting the gazes of the monarchs and ministers in the room.

Before the emperor could question him, Zhu Jinghong spoke first: "Father...you want to frighten those envoys, and your son has already presented you with a clever plan!"

"Damn you bastard, you are getting more and more courageous now, you dare to trespass even in the court meeting!"

With a cold face, Zhu Xianming scolded loudly: "Come here..."

In fact, when Zhu Jinghong forced his way into the palace just now, more than a dozen guards had crowded into the palace, and they didn't take anyone because they saw that it was Zhu Jinghong.

At the moment the emperor called, these people all rushed up and surrounded Zhu Jinghong at the gate of Nuan Pavilion.

"Push out and hit twenty court sticks!"

It is a very serious crime to forcefully break into the emperor's bedroom. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jinghong was the second one to do so besides the empress.

If he hadn't been the emperor's own son, he would have been killed on the spot.

Seeing that the guards were about to make a move, Zhu Jinghong hurriedly yelled: "Father...you let your son finish his sentence. If you are dissatisfied with what your son said, I am willing to receive fifty court sticks!"

In this narrow corridor, Zhu Jinghong is really not afraid of fighting, a dozen guards are not enough for him to beat him up.

Of course, he didn't dare to do anything here, it would be really stupid to do that.

Zhu Xianming had a cold face, while several cabinet ministers watched their hearts and minds, not intending to meddle in the emperor's family affairs at all.

"What you said... Fifty court sticks, I want to hear what you have to say!" Zhu Xianming still had a straight face.

"The son came in and said?"

Seeing that Zhu Xianming didn't respond, Zhu Jinghong was not polite, pushed aside the guards and walked into the hall.

After standing still, Zhu Jinghong coughed dryly twice, and said, "Father, just now my son was outside, and after hearing what some old elders said, he came up with a plan to balance both ends!"

He came up with a plan to get the best of both worlds after hearing what the old man said. Zhu Jinghong's words praised the three cabinet ministers, which made him implement the plan with much less resistance.

"Hurry up and say it!" Zhu Xianming was extremely impatient.

(End of this chapter)